Sale earned his 25.1 Box-Toppers points by being Box-Toppers Player of the Game in 15 of the Red Sox wins, earning 1.0 Box-Toppers point each time. In addition, he earned bonus points:

Three times for being American League Player of the Game (0.7 extra points each time, for a total of 2.1 more Box-Toppers points).

Eight times for being overall Player of the Game (1.0 extra point each time, for a total of 8.0 more Box-Toppers points).

Sale took the Box-Toppers points lead for the season on Sept. 20.

Early in the season, Dodgers pitcher Clayton Kershaw surged to an early, dominant lead. At the All-Star break, Kershaw had 21.1 Box-Toppers points and was on pace to break the all-time, single-season record of 33.7 points set by Randy Johnson in both 2000 and 2002. But Kershaw went on the disabled list for five weeks on July 24 and only earned 2.0 more Box-Toppers points in the final half of the season. Still, he finished third overall with 23.1 Box-Toppers points.

Kershaw has finished first in Box-Toppers player rankings in 2011, 2013 and 2014. He finished second in player rankings in 2012, 2015 and 2016.

Nationals pitcher Max Scherzer finished just 0.1 point behind Sale with 25.0 Box-Toppers points and is the top-ranked National League player. It is tied for the second-closest race in Box-Toppers’ 23 seasons of tracking players:

In 2010, in the closest race for Box-Toppers Player of the Year, Jon Lester of the Red Sox and Roy Halladay of the Phillies both had 23.4 Box-Toppers points. Lester ranked ahead of Halladay on a tiebreaker—he had more Box-Toppers points in the previous season (2009), 19.8 vs. 16.4.

In 1999, Randy Johnson of the Diamondbacks (31.5) finished 0.1 point ahead of second-place player Pedro Martinez of the Red Sox (31.4).

Though Scherzer finished in second so close behind the leader, he only occupied Box-Toppers top spot in 2017 for five days during the season, from Aug. 28 to Aug. 31 and on Sept. 19.

Scherzer earned Player of the Game honors 18 times (three more than Box-Toppers leader Sale). Scherzer earned Box-Toppers bonus points seven times, each time as overall Player of the Day (worth 1.0 extra Box-Toppers point, giving him 7.0 more points).

Scherzer won the 2016 NL Cy Young Award (he led all players in 2016 with 25.7 Box-Toppers points) and is among the three finalists for the honor this year.

It took 7.0 Box-Toppers points for a player to make the top 100 list—Astros shortstop Carlos Correa took the 100th spot with 7.0 points. He earned them by being Player of the Game in five of the Astros wins, including being American League Batter of the Day four times (earning an extra 0.5 bonus points each time), giving him 7.0 total points.

Box-Toppers points are a measure of how much a player provides key contributions to his teams win. Specifically, Box-Toppers tracks who most helps their team win the most games. Using standard box score statistics, Box-Toppers uses a simple formula to determine a Player of the Game for each Major League Baseball game played. That player is the person who contributed most to his team’s win. In regular season games, players earn 1.0 Box-Toppers point for being named Player of the Game and can earn bonus points for being Player of the Day or top player or batter in their league for the day.

•

Here are some other highlights from the top 100 list:

2017 lead changes

Here are the season’s lead changes among players in Box-Toppers points. Chart shows the date and the player’s Box-Toppers point (BTP) total when they took the lead.

Date

Player

Team

BTP

4/2

Carlos Martinez

stl nl

2.0

4/3

Clayton Kershaw

lad nl

2.0

4/9

Noah Syndergaard

nym nl

3.0

4/14

Clayton Kershaw

lad nl

4.0

4/15

Ervin Santana

min al

4.7

4/19

Clayton Kershaw

lad nl

5.0

5/2

Chris Sale

bos al

6.7

5/6

Clayton Kershaw

lad nl

7.0

5/12

Ervin Santana

min al

7.7

5/13

Chris Sale

bos al

8.4

5/17

Clayton Kershaw

lad nl

8.7

8/28

Max Scherzer

dc nl

23.0

9/1

Clayton Kershaw

lad nl

23.1

9/19

Max Scherzer

dc nl

24.0

9/20

Chris Sale

bos al

25.1

3., 13., 20., and 21. The Los Angeles Dodgers top four starting pitchers were among the top 21 overall players in Box-Toppers player rankings. Kershaw, previously mentioned, ranked third (23.1 Box-Toppers points), Alex Wood ranked 13th (15.7), Yu Darvish ranked 20th (13.0) and Rich Hill ranked 21st (12.7). It should be noted that Darvish spent the first half of the season with the Texas Rangers before being traded to the Dodgers at the July trading deadline and earned 7.0 Box-Toppers points prior to that. While having Dodgers starters occupy four of the top 21 spots is impressive, last year’s Chicago Cubs had five starting pitchers among 2016’s top 20 overall players.

5. Indians pitcher Corey Kluber led all AL pitchers in Box-Toppers points in 2016 with 21.2, ranked second among AL pitchers in 2017 (and fifth overall) with 22.0 points. Kluber is one of three finalists for the AL Cy Young Award.

14. Anthony Rizzo of the Cubs led all batters with 15.5 Box-Toppers points. Rizzo has the second-highest Box-Toppers point total by a batter in the past six seasons, a period in which batters’ Box-Toppers point totals have been declining. The only batter since 2012 with a higher single-season Box-Toppers point total than Rizzo’s 2017 total is Miguel Cabrera of the Tigers who had 16.9 in 2013. Despite his high Box-Toppers point total, Rizzo is not among the three finalists for the NL Most Valuable Player award.

17. Giancarlo Stanton of the Marlins ranks second among NL batters, behind Rizzo, with 14.2 Box-Toppers points. Stanton has the fourth-highest Box-Toppers point total by a batter in the past six seasons. He has the most Box-Toppers points among the three finalists for NL Most Valuable Player.

22. Edwin Encarnacion of the Indians ranks first among AL batters with 12.1 Box-Toppers points, which is the lowest Box-Toppers point total to lead AL batters since player tracking began in 1995. The lowest point total to lead a season category is 10.7 by Nolan Arenado of the Rockies in 2016, when he led NL batters. While Encarnacion leads AL batters in Box-Toppers points, he is not among the three finalists listed by baseball writers for the AL MVP award.

26. Aaron Judge of the Yankees ranks second among AL batters with 11.2 Box-Toppers points. He has the most Box-Toppers points among the three finalists for AL Most Valuable Player. He also has the most Box-Toppers points among AL rookies and has the most points among the three finalists for AL Rookie of the Year.

64. Cody Bellinger of the Dodgers leads NL rookies with 8.7 Box-Toppers points and is one of three finalists for NL Rookie of the Year. Bellinger ranks 10th among NL batters.

96. Manny Machado of the Orioles led AL batters in Box-Toppers points in 2016 with 12.7. In 2017, he had 7.0 points, 19th among AL batters.

Other notable players not among the top 100:

Ranked 129th—Kris Bryant of the Cubs was NL Most Valuable Player in 2016, when he earned 10.5 Box-Toppers points, second among NL batters. In 2017, he earned 6.0 points, 24th among NL batters, his lowest total in his three seasons.

Ranked 186th—Mike Trout of the Angels was AL Most Valuable Player in 2016, when he earned 12.5 Box-Toppers points, second among AL batters. In 2017, he earned 5.0 points, 45th among AL batters, his lowest point total since 2013, when he had 3.5 points.

Ranked 322nd—Red Sox pitcher Rick Porcello was 2016’s AL Cy Young Award winner. But Porcello had just 8.0 Box-Toppers points in 2016, 31st among AL pitchers and 91st among all players. In 2017, he had just 3.0 Box-Toppers points, 83rd among AL pitchers.

Ranked 387th—Jose Altuve of the Astros is odds-on-favorite to win the 2017 AL Most Valuable Player, but did not earn many Box-Toppers points this season—just 2.5, earning Player of the Game honors only twice. He ranked 90th among AL batters in 2017 Box-Toppers points.

•

Box-Toppers tends to favor pitchers, especially in the short term, so most of the top 100 players are pitchers. However, each year for the past four years the number of pitchers in the top 100 has declined:

In 2017, 63 of the top 100 players are pitchers.

In 2016, it was 67 of 100.

In 2015, 69 of 100.

And in 2014, 79 of 100.

Here is a breakdown of this year’s top 100 players by their primary position:

60—Starting pitcher

13—Outfield (6 RF, 5 LF, 2 CF)

7—Third base

6—First base

3—Designated hitter

3—Closing pitcher

3—Second base

3—Shortstop

2—Catcher

•

Three teams each have seven players in the top 100, most of any team: Indians, Nationals and Astros.

The Dodgers have six players on the list.

Four teams have five players: Diamondbacks, Red Sox, Yankees and Cardinals.

Four teams each have just one player on the list: Reds, Tigers, Mets and Blue Jays.

Two teams have no representatives in the top 100: The Chicago White Sox and Atlanta Braves. The Braves’ top-ranked player is outfielder Ender Inciarte (6.5 Box-Toppers points, ranked 119th). The White Sox’ top-ranked player is outfielder Avisail Garcia (6.7 Box-Toppers points, ranked 113th).

•

This season, 763 different players earned Box-Toppers Player of the Game honors. There were 409 players who had more than 2.0 Box-Toppers points and 38 with 10.0 or more points. There were 169 players who made their Box-Toppers debut in 2017, earning Player of the Game honors for the first time.

Here are comparisons with those numbers from the previous two seasons:

Players earning Player of the Game honors—2016 (730), 2015 (751), 2014 (722).

(Editor’s note: In the chart are references to teams “ana al” and “fla nl,” referring to the Angels and the Marlins. We realize those teams are now known as Los Angeles Angels (of Anaheim) and the Miami Marlins, but we keep the old abbreviations around since those name changes were largely for marketing or political purposes and involved no substantial change in the actual geography of the team. Plus, change is hard.)

Box-Toppers

Tracking who most helps their teams win the most games, based on box score stats. A method to measure & compare baseball's top players.

Box-Toppers tracks who most helps their team win the most games. Using standard box score statistics, Box-Toppers uses a simple formula to determine a Player of the Game for each Major League Baseball game played. That player is the person who contributed most to his team’s win. Players earn Box-Toppers points for being named Player of the Game and can earn bonus points for being Player of the Day or top player or batter in their league for the day.